By ASHLEY COLLMAN
25 June
2013
Famed sci-fi and fantasy writer Richard Matheson has died at
the age of 87. Matheson was best known for his stories 'I Am
Legend' and 'The Shrinking Man.'
Matheson's daughter Ali announced his death on Sunday, saying
he died 'surrounded by the people and things he loved.'
Matheson passed away on June 23.
Matheson was a prolific writer, and many of his works and
were turned into films.
'I Am Legend' the story about the last man alive after an
apocalypse, spawned three film adaptations - 1964's 'The Last Man
on Earth' starring Vincent Price, 1971's 'Omega Man' starring
Charlton Heston and the most recent 2007 version 'I Am Legend'
starring Will Smith.
Other stories turned into films include 1953's 'Hell House,'
1956's 'The Shrinking Man,' 1958's 'A Stir of Echoes,' and 1978's
'What Dreams May Come.'
He also penned a few episodes of 'The Twilight Zone'
including a popular episode called 'The Nightmare at 20,000 Feet'
which starred William Shatner
Matheson also helped inspire a new generation of
storytellers. Anne Rice said his short story 'A Dress of white
Silk' was part of what got her interested in
vampires.
When writing Cell, Stephen King drew heavily upon Matheson's
work and Steven Spielberg's first film was based
on a Matheson story.
The thing that set Matheson apart from other writers in his
genre was that he kept his stories grounded in a recognizable
world.
In an interview with Entertainment
Weekly, Matheson said: 'I wrote about real people
and real circumstances and real neighborhoods. There was no crypts
or castles or H.P. Lovecraft-type environments.
They were just about normal people who had something bizarre
happening to them in the neighborhood. I could never write about
strange kingdoms.
I
could never do Harry Potter or anything like that. Even when I did
science-fiction I didn’t write about foreign planets and distant
futures. I certainly never did fantasies about trolls living under
bridges.
I
had to write about realistic circumstances. That’s the way my brain
works. And I think that gave me a sort of place in the
field.'
Tragically, Matheson was going to
receive a visionary award this Wednesday at the Academy of Science
Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Films' Saturn Awards. Their 39th annual
ceremony will be dedicated to Matheson, and his award presented
posthumously.
'We are heartbroken to lose a writer of towering talent,
unlimited imagination and unparalleled inspiration,' Robert
Holguin, the academy's president told the AP.
'Richard was a genius whose visions helped bring legitimacy and
critical acclaim to science fiction and fantasy.'
Matheson was born in 1926 in New Jersey and raised in
Brooklyn, New York. He published his first short story in 1950 and
moved to Los Angeles in 1951.
The following year he married his wife Ruth Ann Woodson and
together they had four children, three of which became writers
themselves.
Matheson is survived by his wife and children.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2347854/Richard-Matheson-dead-Legendary-sci-fi-writer-dies-age-87.html